A Practical Guide to Original Characters
by Quill-and-Parchment
Summary: Here, lords and ladies, is the Practical Guide to Original Characters, detailing simple, shortened facts from the lengthy process of building your very own OC. Note that it concerns humans alone, so if you wish for a guide for Elves, PM me saying so.


**A Practical Guide to Original Characters**

I've been wandering in this glorious fandom called Lord of the Rings for awhile now, searching for something good to read. The results amazed me. At _least_ two fifths of the total fanfictions here are decent fanfictions (which is a _lot_ more than I can say for some other fandoms, truly), with a lot of useful communities to save time and effort. I am so happy I weep – and I'm not being sarcastic or cynical.

But then again, not terribly unpredictably, I'd say nearly half the fandom was filled with OCs, and, as expected, Mary Sues. And Gary Stus, I'd bet, although I have yet to seen a single _male_ character traveling into Middle-Earth. The _point_ is, however, that there is a lot of OCs. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are god-like while some make me want to howl in despair. A few if not most of you might or might not face the same problem, because let's face it, Lord of the Rings is a piece of literature targeted at adults rather than children, hence the quality of the fandom in the first place.

In this guide, let us look at a few points of what make or break a good Original Character. In this edit, I will say that there's really no shortened way of actually getting a really good character. You have to take your time and allow no shortcut if that was to happen at all. But you can, perhaps, view it as a check list _after_ you have gotten everything ready to go.

Ah, and one more thing: this guide is strictly for _human_ OCs. If requests come, I will make one for Elves and other magical creatures.

**a) It is the Look that Kills**

Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it. Nine out of ten fanfictions, _especially_ of the newbies, have glorious sparkly beautiful gorgeous original characters up their sleeves – and some even down on paper or in a file, ready to publish! But let's remain with reality: that era had long since passed. We have grown into a more educated level as writers (most if not all of us). We no longer describe our characters on the very first page, nor do we write lengthy descriptions. And if we do, there must be some just reasons behind it.

One paragraph for the hair, one paragraph for the clothes, one for the eyes and one for the body figure is wrong, people. Utterly, _terribly_ wrong. Keep it all in _one_ paragraph. And, if you can help it, don't go into the details like the material of the fabric. Not too much, anyway. One or two words is fine. Unless you have done that for a long time and know how to keep it flowing without so much bumps on the road, I would suggest you don't be too detailed. Some characters in LotR Tolkien barely gave us any details at all, and we still know them anyway.

Say, this is an example:

"She was a tall, elegant lady with pure white hair that looked and felt as though it was silk. Her dress was a soft emerald, velvet perhaps, and cascaded around her as she swept down the street of Minas Tirith. Dark eyes were set in a thin, stony face that looked as though it had never seen joy. Neither ugly nor pretty, the lady bore the look of one of those countless noblewomen who did not stand out aside from the fact that they are in the court."

_Way_ better than this lengthy one:

"Raven Mallory was a noblewoman. Her silvery-white hair, almost platinum, smooth and soft-looking, seemed as though it gleams in the sunlight. As the breeze blew, the material swayed with it, bringing it to her shoulder and into the face of a man walking nearby.

"She was dressed in an elegant, beautiful emerald dress that fell around her as she walked down the street. It was a simple thing, yet elegant all the same, with rhinestones at the belt and made of soft, expensive velvet. Its wide sleeves brushed against her side as she walked, making little _swish-swish_ sounds…"

And yadda-yadda-yadda. You get the point, I presume. We did not even get to her face expression yet, and you have used up 98 words already, while in the first example we use 88 words and got through with the whole thing.

Trust me, you are describing the character for _yourself_, not for the readers. They only needed a quick overall of the OC's looks, figure, and her attitude (for the face often reflects the mood). We – that is, your readers – will in fact not care very much if your OC is ugly like a troll and have nail fungus problems if he is an interesting character.

Looks do not decide everything, my friend, in real life or in fiction. A pretty lady could turn out to be the nastiest piece of work Arda had seen yet, while the shepherd with the zits turn out to be greater than Aragorn. And that is possible. You can make the zit guy become better than the king and _not_ turn him into a Stu. It all depends on you, your skills and how far you want to push yourself.

However, aside from the gushing fountain of information about our OC, I have also seen another problem: the _lacking_ of details. I have encountered several promising stories that went through two or three chapters without giving us half a clue as to what the main character looks like. Or his/her sidekick, for that matter. That is incorrect. Give us _some_ clues about how to identify your character. If you, for some reason (especially for the guys), despise detailed description, tack in a few lines here and there instead of making a whole paragraph dedicated to your character.

For example, somewhere in the middle of the first chapter:

"Ares turned sharp, aggressive blue eyes to the speaker, his mouth twisting into a snarl."

So we now know your character have blue eyes. Good job! We also know that your character most likely have an attitude problem and is violent. Plot point or not, though, it is up to you to decide.

And yet another one, also somewhere in the middle of the chapter (need not be near the eyes-description):

"Mia sighed in exasperation. She said nothing, though, and just wiped her hands against the tattered jeans she wore."

Your character is wearing jeans! Well, that was a surprise! Aren't we talking Middle-Earth here?

Point is, you have many ways to describe your character. It need not be in your first paragraph, first page or even first chapter. Just tack in a few lines or two here and there and let the readers figure it all out. Or for the time-saving method, write a whole paragraph. Remember, however, too little detail is bad, too _much_ detail is also bad. Know the limit. We don't want to hear how your character's hair shined in the sun. We do not know how her eyes sparkle. We want to know her demeanor, if she's a cheerful girl with a big grin on her face all the time, or a grumpy slouch who looked as though she had never seen a day with sunshine.

On the point of too little details: you don't _have_ to take this point too seriously in a few cases, since Tolkien, once again, sometimes did not do any more introduction than just giving us a name and an identity. But if you do involve a name and if that was of any importance to your story, maybe you might want to consider adding a bit - if only a bit - into that name. Elladan and Elrohir, in _Fellowship of the Ring_, was introduced as the twin sons of Elrond Peredhil and they hate the orcs for what they did to the twins' mother.

Oh, and don't make your OC's eyes shift colors. It's getting tiring. It's just one sure way to shoot your beloved original character to hell. There's also no such natural hair color as purple! Unless, and _only, _if you have a plausible excuse for it. Don't ask me; it's all up to you. But I personally don't believe a whole character could be ruined with shifting eye-colors unless combined with a few more fails.

The subject of peculiar scars/birthmarks will be resolved later. Continue on.

Be realistic.

**b) Issues with Attitudes**

Alright, kiddies, another one of the Big Three that get your OC flung into the pit by avid flamers – and kind-hearted, helpful critics too. But I have faith that nobody could get _that_ awful. We're all writers here, folks. We have _got_ to be smart.

So you got your OC's look planned out, and you've already gotten through the first chapter. The "transition" from their world to Arda might or might have not happened already. Now that they are no longer in friendly or familiar territory, how will they react to the new world? And its people?

Here, you may have two scenarios: either your OC comes from another world (twenty-first century, most often the case, but I saw some very interesting stories that featured kids from other dimensions as well) and just somehow got dropped into Middle-Earth or you have a guy who's been there all his life and have the basic Arda Survival Kit. What this kit contains would be discussed later. But it is safe to say he knows what he is doing and where he is going most often than not.

**Number 1: Girl/Guy-into-ME**

On the first scenario: before we go into it, let me ask you this. How would _you_ feel if you go to bed one day, expecting to go to school and present that _excellent_ project you've been making all week and then wake up in a forest somewhere in your pajamas?

If you say you're going to jump up and chirp "OMG! I'm lost in the middle of nowhere! How cool!" please go see the doctor. Now.

Most of us (yes, even the adults, people; they're all humans) would freak out or think it was a warped dream. Some of us would pinch ourselves. Some might think it an exciting dream and go exploring. Some of us might even lie down and close our eyes so that we would wake up back at home. The _point_ is, we're not going to take it calmly as though it's as normal as Mom telling us to do our homework first before going out or get on the computer.

Let me introduce you to an excellent example like this. Try out _Don't Panic!_ by boz4PM. Yes, she's on this site. Her writing and the sequel after that are just about the godliest of all godly OCs in the fandom. Anyone who disagrees with me send me a PM. I believe we would have a great discussion over that.

But moving on. Yes, you will panic. Yes, you will very likely start asking for your mommy. Don't look at me like that. I know you soil your pants every once in awhile; fear had that effect on you. Yes, you will probably start screaming for help, and that is in fact the most logical course of action. Even my mom told me to start screaming when I got lost. Er, in the wilderness, that is. I agree that Wal-Mart is not a good place, especially when you're no longer four.

The calmer folks, however, notably adults, might check around first to find out their surroundings, then maybe find some sort of trail to walk on until they find civilization. When you're an adult, it's just automatic: find human life first, finding out _where_ exactly they are later. So if you're writing about an adult, you may skip the screaming/panicking/peeing your pants part.

Unless, of course, you're writing about a faint-hearted adult. Or one with son/daughter/wife/husband. I know _I'm_ going to panic if my son is in the room with me when the "transition" happens, and then I'm in the woods and he's not around anymore.

And no, I don't have kids. I'm too young for that.

That is the mere beginning. What will they encounter? Remember, Middle-Earth is like our medieval world - more specifically, when people are still worried about staying alive and have not the luxury to build police forces or anything that would help very much with common security. Their wilderness should not be too different with the exception of roaming Orcs and the Wargs. If you want to make your character run like hell and scared out of their wits, throw in the nasties! If not, something more normal. Wolves? Stags? Deer? A fellow wanderer?

Now, your character might very well cross paths with a Ranger or a friendly healer out to gather firewood as he/she would a rotting human corpse, a bunch of brigands, or worse, slave traders. Count the possibilities. One way to make it fun is to write all the possible situations on many pieces of paper, mix them up and then draw one randomly from the bunch. You can continue from there. This way you are not in total control of the situation, and it would make you live in the story more. We all know we don't control everything in real life.

Better yet, treat it as your very own RPG! Make it a game. One of the best fanfictions might or might not have originated from a game and not a real idea.

Ah, right, another pet-peeve of all the good writers out there in OC fanfiction: the ignorance of the fact that Middle-Earth people _do not_ speak any of our language. Which means that unless you speak fluent Sindarin/Quenya (and if you do, get out more) beforehand, or if you decide to get dropped in Rohan in which case these people speak Rohirrim (thanks, Ragnelle, for pointing it out) or if they are common people, Westron, you aren't going to understand a word the folks there are saying. So the most your hero could give whoever she stumbles across that is human is his/her name. You can't even tell this person your age, let alone your position.

Also, if you are coming from a different world, I doubt the title you hold previously would be of any meaning in Middle-Earth. Even if you are the High Queen of five countries in your homeland, if you decide to toss the queen into ME, she's going to be a peasant girl. She's going to get her hands dirty, going to learn the alphabet all over again, and she's going to work like everyone else. Face it. It's a fate not even Obama could've run from had he been tossed into Middle-Earth.

Ooh, I can sense an epic adventure stemming from that one…

Either way, if your OC is not from Middle-Earth originally, he/she would face all of these: inability to communicate using an educated language, inability to fit in (unless your former world is also medieval-style, so the hero could learn some form of self-defense and have a few survival skills) at first because as far as I know, there are no limos there or any of those modern comforts, total confusion as to where or what Middle-Earth was and a truckload of other smaller matters to solve.

Don't make them all gung-ho. It is completely illogical and would probably make readers click the back button before the first paragraph is over. I have.

And then there's the question of possession. It shall be discussed later on.

Be realistic.

**Number 2: Native-of-ME**

Not nearly as hard as the first scenario regarding language, fitting in, and knowledge of Middle-Earth, since this is a native. He/she should have known at least the very basic of Arda and also most likely have the Arda Survival Kit handy, along with a very cool occupation if you are writing about an adult, or an apprentice-in-training.

If you still believe it is a real kit, I'm going to laugh.

Let's look at our Arda Survival Kit. It contains the following:

- Basic survival skills (gathering, fishing, et cetera)

- Knowledge of self-defense (simple swordplay, dagger-fighting, et cetera; for girls, kicks and punches. And slaps)

- Fluent knowledge of, at the _very_ least, Westron

- Clothes that did not look out of place

- Basic knowledge of the land

Aside from that, your native-in-ME is most likely to be more sure-footed than the girl/guy-into-ME, because they are still in their home turf, for the most part. Even if a Rohirrim boy travels to Gondor, he knows that they still speak Westron, a language he could understand, and that they are on the same level of technology development as his land. It's not like Aragorn and Arwen drive a Beetle around Minas Tirith.

But there is a downside to this: you must know very well the ins and outs of the culture your character belongs to. If he is Gondorian, you have to know the life and conditions of his land and his status and his standing and all that good stuff. So this kind of character requires a lot of research.

Regarding occupation, it's not so hard. Like I said before, Middle-Earth is pretty much a fiction version of our medieval time (think...around the time of the Black Death, maybe?). Which means there shall be gypsies, bards, minstrels, cooks, shoemakers, seamstresses, bar owners, barmaids, mercenaries, tax collectors and all those things. You have plenty to choose from, because if Lord of the Rings have captured your attention, you most likely have _some_ love for medieval times. Just remember to research accordingly as well.

There. This is much shorter than the first scenario. Notice that we will discuss names later. For now, this is closure.

Be realistic.

**c) What Shall I Call Thee?**

Right. Names. No longer the bane of most OCs, since we've got enough sarcastic memes and bashing fics out there to warn writers against the fanciful stuff. However, it is still a reoccurring problem. We shall address it now.

For the stranger-into-ME, it's pretty much okay now that we don't go overboard with "Melinda Alice Kawaii Blossom Desu Riversong" (oh, please, no, not the _desu_ too!). Mostly these days I see Alice Kingsley, Kate, Kat, Eileen, Mira and such with the occasional Sylvia Knight thrown in. But those are common names. It's fine. As long as your character is not amazingly beautiful or kick every single butt out there or both. I don't mind a character called Sylvia Knight who had obesity problems.

Last names are, until now, acceptable. Curter, Hunter, Jackson, Peterson, et cetera – common names. Fine.

However, when we have a character with the first name Silver and the surname Hunter, we have a problem. Make it more mundane. Like the old Vietnamese said, "fear the guts of those who you know, fear the looks of those who you don't". That name can send quite a lot of folks running. Me included. But I am very picky, so pay me no heed.

But for the native-of-ME, there's a bit of a problem here. Rohirrims do _not_ name their kids Bobby or Jacob or Mickey. Quoting directly from another guide I am lucky to come across, a name like that is "more fitting for one from Bree". That is very true. The owner of The Green Dragon inn in Bree had an assistant named Bob. Wikipedia-proved.

This should have been noted before by many authors, and I will repeat it now. Most names in Middle-Earth are in Sindarin. If you are lazy, go enter "Sindarin name generator" into Google. They're going to do it for you. If you are lazy for even _that_, pick some name from the mile-long list of names from _Silmarillion_ or _Lord of the Rings_ for a namesake. If your OC is a bard's or minstrel's son, the old dude might just name him Maglor!

Be aware, however, that the son called Maglor might grow up to be a great archer and retch at the sight of a lyre. You don't have to copy the namesake of the OC in talent or appearance. It is very advisable, in fact, that you do not. I could've sworn I stumbled upon a fic where the main character's name is Lúthien and her face is scarred horribly. Now if I could just remember that fanfiction…

Have a girl who was named after Lúthien _and_ being beautiful would probably make you end up with a Mary Sue. But have no fear; if such a situation come up, you will just have to say she is Arwen and Aragorn's second daughter! It's perfectly reasonable for Arwen to want to name her daughter after her great-great-grandmother, and her beauty could be passed down from Arwen as well. Makes perfect sense.

In conclusion, give your character a name that fits her past and her location. I will bet you that there would be nobody who is called David in that place. Except for the OC in which you so ruthlessly toss into Middle-Earth, that is.

For a Rohirrim name...I'm afraid I don't have any links ready for you on this one. But I do know the Rohirrim language was based partly on Anglo-Saxon.

Be realistic.

**d) Oh, What is that in Your Bag?**

Ah, possessions. Another pet-peeve.

Folks, go for a walk. Or, if you cannot, go to school. Look around. Does _anyone_ in your class wear a sword on their belt? Does anyone bring a _quarterstaff_ into school? Does anyone bring a scimitar on a walk?

For the safety of your neighborhood, I hope not. Else parents are gonna sue. But we're getting off topic.

In our society nowadays, we have weapons, yes, but we keep them at home or must be police officers in order to carry them around on your body. Else we will be kicked into jail. So if your OC is going to be transported from our world, from our time, into Middle-Earth, most likely all he/she would have would be her fists and feet. There is _absolutely no logical reason_ as to why your fifteen-year-old OC Jean Kurosawa would have a katana tied to her belt when she appears in Middle-Earth.

A wooden sword, the _shinai_ – the one the Japanese used to practice Kendo – might be acceptable if her Japanese family is traditional and her grandpa wants to teach her self-defense, but no more than that.

Kitchen knives work too. You never know if you can be whisked away into another world when you're chopping chicken for your mama.

There are countless ways in which your OC can be kicked into ME. It could be through a ghost house, from the kitchen, into a cave, at the back of the closet (if the Penvensies can do it, so can we), etc. She might even be abducted in the shower. Whatever the situation, your OC will dress according to that situation. She obviously did not plan the trip, because we all know it's fiction and no one sane truly _believes_ in it.

You do not wear your wedding dress when you are going to bed. You do not wear your Halloween costume in the middle of May as your mom called you down to help her unload the car. If you choose to be sent into Middle-Earth through your sleep, you might end up there in your sleeping gown, your pajamas, or something less than courteous. If your dude is a mad scientist trying to cross dimensions, chances are he will dress like a spaceman. He wouldn't be wearing breeches, tunic and boots.

Do you wear shoes when you go to sleep? If you do, then you're some weird person. So if you land in a forest, don't you think the grass and the earth would feel uncomfortable? Include that detail. Make your OC suffer. We readers love it!

Unless it is Halloween and they're dressing for play (or cosplaying! Brilliant!), they would be quite weird to any man in Middle-Earth when they arrived.

The point is, you can have your OC bring whatever he/she wants into Middle-Earth, but have a logic explanation to it. If your OC is a champ in martial arts, chances are he might not need anything aside from his own body. If she has a flaming whip and came from our Earth, the only sound explanation is that she somehow set it on fire, in which case the OC would be eager to get rid of it as fast as possible before she caught on fire too. The same for a staff with a floating orb on top. Probably some fantastic invention concerning magnetic fields.

You see, my friend, everything from our time have _some_ sort of scientific explanation. But the folks there will probably think it magic and chase you with pitch forks. So watch it. Middle-Earth people are not known for friendliness. The Elves are practically estranged from the world. The Men are suspicious and mean half the time. The hobbits kept to themselves. The dwarves are greedy, secretive folks. And the Orcs – do you seriously want to make deals with Orcs?

Be realistic.

**e) Ai Elbereth! What Happened to Your Face?  
**Or, as another would put it, "What the heck is up with that weird birthmark?"

If you read the small prints, you have gotten the gist of it. That's right, children! Sparkling birthmarks! Strange, totally illogical scars! Shiny crescent moon on the forehead! The stuff.

Look, folks, we are nine and a half out of ten times born without some sort of misshapen features or birthmarks, thank goodness for that. Imagine how hard it would be to hide from people who are trying to kill you when all they have is look at your hand – and say! There's one _real_ special rose-shaped golden mark!

And we do not _have_ birthmarks that are gold or silver or anything. They are lighter than our skin – or darker – yes, but really? _Glowing violet birthmark_? Seriously, even Eragon didn't have it. The only way he got his Argetlam (Silver Hand) mark is because Saphira chose him to be her Rider. And that is because his dad was the last Dragon Rider right after that elf whatshisname. As you see throughout the course of the story, it didn't exactly bring Eragon all sorts of happy endings.

From the twenty-first century, birthmarks tend to be ugly. Trust me, I've seen some of them. They are often misshapen and only _vaguely_ represent a shape. It's like looking at constellations. You can never quite know what shapes they take until someone point them out to you.

Onto scars: oh, they are more reasonable than birthmarks, of course, being given by some mortal means rather than a mark the gods "bestowed" upon your OC.

But that does not give you the excuse to give your OC a scar shaped like a star in the middle of her forehead. How did _that_ happen, anyway? A dagger wound? Do you know how it feels to have a blade slicing across your skin to make that mark? Don't try it at home.

No! I don't know how it feels! But I can imagine.

Keep the scars reasonable all the same. If you don't know how a scar would look like when caused by something, Google it up! The "Image" section should provide you with everything you need.

A special birthmark is something very common in Mary Sues. Did you not notice that with the birthmark, they are no longer "flawless"? So either she's flawless or she isn't. Decide.

If your hero bears or receives a wound, like a head injury of some sorts, don't speed up the healing process _just because_. It might be unsightly, I know, to tell the readers there is a bump on the back of Jack's head, but if he got hit by an Orc's club and he's not the Son of Wolverine or something, he's bound to retain some effects from it. Including getting knocked out, head hurts like hell, and a bunch of other unpleasant things.

But he is human. Remember that.

Be realistic.

**f) Oh, my! You are Invincible!**

Guys, this argument is as old as Ilúvatar. Don't. Make. Your. OC. Invincible. If you have read _any_ of the memes and parodies done on Mary Sues, you will understand why. Your OC is awesome. She surpasses Legolas in archery. She beats Aragorn flat in swordplay. She stole Gimli's axe from his hands and swing it back at him.

She is a Mary Sue.

We are, once again, talking human here. I have no doubt that King Thranduil or one of Legolas' brothers or his mother could beat him in archery. I am sure that Arathorn father of Aragorn can best his son. I am sure Gimli could be picked up and hurled right across the mountains by _somebody_. But not your OC.

Remember, she is human. She might have come from our Earth. She could not know swordplay that well. She is younger than Aragorn (he's eighty-nine in The Two Towers, and he's trained by Elves and chieftain of the Rangers, folks – we'd all be trying to remember our daughters' names at that age). She could not _possibly_ be as old as Legolas (unless she is Yuuko from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, in which she is no longer an OC and she could just teleport herself out of there anyway). She could be nowhere near Gimli in skill and wisdom. The dwarf might be rash at times, but he is about a century old or more. There's no way he's dumber than a human child.

If she came from _this_ world, she would have no skills in self-defense whatsoever, unless you resort to the excuse that she's a champion in martial arts, in which case she would still lose to the Elves. The dwarf? Maybe? I doubt Aragorn in his eighty-nine years – and he's still middle-aged! – would lose to her easily. Aside from that, your OC should not be able to hold a bow correctly, let alone shoot, except if she had learned archery here before. But the bows athletes used in this era are quite different from the ones they used in LotR universe, so you might want to consider that too.

Again, your OC's background affects this area. Just be realistic.

**g) You Sure are Difficult!**

Right. _Personalities_. How could I forget!

Right off the bat: we're not perfect.

In fact, we are far from it. Perfect is a word reserved for God for those who are Christians. Perfect is a lie in itself for those who see truth in its bluntest form. There is no such thing as perfection. We aren't God. In trying to perfect ourselves, we are making ourselves rot. The same goes for our characters. In trying to make your Mary Sue the best in everything, you've make her the worst in everything, and she ended up getting flamed and then abandoned.

My friend isn't perfect. He's squeamish. He's blunt. He enjoyed annoying me. But I respect him because he is my friend and he asks for nothing but company and opinions.

My sister isn't perfect. She acts tough all the time and freak out when there's a black-out. She's arrogant. She's foolish. But she is also forgiving and exceedingly loyal. She is diligent in everything she does. Her heart is kind. People like because she never goes back on her words and because she hangs on to her friends when they start to drift apart.

_I'm_ not perfect. I'm a sloth. I did everything halfway and cared only for my family, those I know and no one else. I wouldn't save a puppy if I see it dying. Heck, I probably wouldn't save a _human_ if I see him dying, if it means my family lives. I can and will turn traitor on everyone but my mother if she so asks. I blindly follow orders if they are given. And yet I still found friends – don't ask me how, because I don't know either. But maybe there's something about me that attracts others.

Your OC is the same. She can't be both loyal and righteous at the same time. When you are righteous, you might have to kill your best friend because it will save the world. When you are righteous, you might have to leave your mother to die and save the king. If you are loyal, then you'll leave the king to rot and find your mom and get the hell out of there. If you are loyal, you'll probably go right along with your friend in whatever stupid schemes they're brewing.

There's no one without another. It's like a see-saw. If you lift one, the other goes down. If you lift the other, this one would go down. To obtain wisdom, one must not be attached to anyone lest that attachment blind their judgment. The judges have heart, you know, and it's not always the guilty guy who goes to jail. Humans make mistake. Finding the balance is almost impossible, and to keep it that way is just plain unattainable.

Make your OC a mean guy with a brilliant brain and a heart the size of a pea if you want. Just make it solid. Don't do things half-way. If they're stupid, make them stupid. A simpleton can't give a word of glorious wisdom, correct? So if your OC is evil, he'll probably care nothing for his people, his underlings _or_ his second-in-command. What he'll care about is himself. If he loves somebody, he is more likely to force said person to come with him rather than turn sides.

On the other side, if you make an OC who values love and feelings above all else, she might betray the whole of Middle-Earth to be with her lover, who is a minion of Sauron and just might be using her. People don't join sides with Sauron because they get cookies and cool titles, folks. If he's power-loving, he wouldn't give a crap she would be heartbroken afterward. Alternately, if she's that loyal to love, her judgment will completely and utterly blind her. You can't be in love and be clear-sighted at once.

Make your OC lovable. Make her have something - a personality, a characteristic - that make us cringe or grimace in disgust. Spice things up!

Be realistic.

**Conclusion**

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if you read this guide or read something else on Google. It doesn't matter if you decide I'm a buffoon trying to act cool or not. It really doesn't matter if you think this guide is just a waste of time. It's _your_ OC, I'm just here to help, and you can do whatever you think is right with it. Make it glorious! Make it a Mary Sue! Make it something _nobody_ have ever seen before.

Whatever happens, I hope this guide helps somewhat in the long run. You have miles to go before you can reach the finish line, and I'm just someone on the sidewalk selling lemonades and maps. Take what you need and go.

But take comfort in this fact: the finish line does not move on its own. Someday, maybe someone who have spent their childhood roaming the fandom could become the next Nobel prize winner. Who knows? And it could well be you!

Have questions? Ask in reviews. Or, if it is private, PM me. If you want me to add something, leave a review. I'll get back to you as quickly as I can.


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